OK, I know nothing about cycling. I first came across PCM back in 2001/02 when it was just Cycling Manager. I never played the game since then. I recently have taken an interest in cycling so I went and got myself a copy of PCM 16 but have to say that I am disappointed. The game has certainly got prettier since way back when but there does not seem to be a great improvement in the game play.
Maybe it has something to do with me, I am not sure. An example. When you reach the 5km left to race, the tutorial steps in and tells you how to set up a train (not sure exactly what that means) but when I try to set it up nothing happens. I am left with 2-3 riders doing as they were before I tried setting this train up.
Next thing is, whenever the race caller (is it possible to edit this guy out and still have info about the race?) informs me there is just 5 km left, I try to ready one of my sprinters for the big finish only to find the finish line around the next corner, long before I imagine 5 game time kms to have come up.
The game does not get me involved. I do not feel like I am taking part in the day to day life of a Pro Cycling Manager.
I tried Pro Cyclist but found that to be worse than the management side of things. It should at the least have a first person option. As it is now, it is like playing a career race except you only look after one rider.
Don't worry, complaining about PCM in this forum is a lot more common than you'd imagine
Maybe it has something to do with me, I am not sure. An example. When you reach the 5km left to race, the tutorial steps in and tells you how to set up a train (not sure exactly what that means) but when I try to set it up nothing happens. I am left with 2-3 riders doing as they were before I tried setting this train up.
Creating a train is often hard with no prior experience. What you need to do is set one rider to relay - the one with the worst flat/sprint skills is normally the train opener, and let a second rider follow him by selecting him and right clicking -> follow icon on the relaying rider, and do the same until you get to your sprinter, which should be the last in the train.
Next thing is, whenever the race caller (is it possible to edit this guy out and still have info about the race?) informs me there is just 5 km left, I try to ready one of my sprinters for the big finish only to find the finish line around the next corner, long before I imagine 5 game time kms to have come up.
Bear in mind PCM's scale is 1:10. So basically at normal (x1) speed 5 kms feel more like a bit more than 500 meters IRL unless you pause continuously. Keep an eye on the distance left or pause the game when you need to make an action before the finish.
The game does not get me involved. I do not feel like I am taking part in the day to day life of a Pro Cycling Manager.
I tried Pro Cyclist but found that to be worse than the management side of things. It should at the least have a first person option. As it is now, it is like playing a career race except you only look after one rider.
Cycling is an incredibly complicated sport, and creating a Football Manager-kinda game for it would be pretty much impossible. PCM is more a middle ground between what FIFA and Football Manager are for football/soccer if you will. Of course Pro Cyclist could be more different than career and if you've got any suggestions don't hesitate to head over here.
I fully understand what you mean in terms of the management part, and you're definitely not the first one complaining about it. For more details you could look into the wishlist thread.
For a sprint train, I can easily refer to real cycling:
The HTC train which you see here is the strongest I can remember. The point is that you place your sprinter (Cavendish in green here), at the end of a series of your own riders. Then in the final few kms you constantly see one rider leading the group, and then dropping off the front. This process continues and is known as a lead-out, and in the end, IRL with about 100-150m to go normally, 1-1.5km in the game, you launch your sprinter.
For distances, you should not rely on your guts, but rather on the distance to go, which you can see at the bottom right (first rider in race) and bottom left (selected rider). Normally, you can start setting the order in a sprint train with 18km to go. What you do is select your main sprinter for the race. With him selected, you select your 2nd best sprinter, who will do the lead-out. After that, the flat stat becomes more important, as these riders don't sprint anymore, but rather pull as long as they can at their pace. You can set up a train with as many riders of your team as you want. My experience is, that with decent yellow bar and a full red bar, each wagon (apart from lead-out and sprinter) can last for 2-2.5km at 99 effort.
Next thing is, whenever the race caller informs me there is just 5 km left, I try to ready one of my sprinters for the big finish only to find the finish line around the next corner, long before I imagine 5 game time kms to have come up.
PCM works on a 1:10 scale, so the distance information for the finale is kind of unreliable. Try following the guide I posted above, maybe try looking in the tips&tricks section or check some youtube videos for more detail.
(is it possible to edit this guy out and still have info about the race?)
You can turn the commentary volume down to 0 in the game settings (when you open PCM, maybe even during race, not sure about that).
Creating a train is often hard with no prior experience. What you need to do is set one rider to relay
So you don't do as the tutorial suggests i.e. Set lead rider to (circle with the right pointing arrow) whatever that is? I shall try that when I next load the game up.
PCM works on a 1:10 scale
OK, I see what you mean but even allowing for that the finish line still seems to come up pretty bloody fast. Maybe after I have had a few races I may get used to it.
You can turn the commentary volume down to 0 in the game settings (when you open PCM, maybe even during race, not sure about that).
I want to hear the race in order to gain cues as to when to do certain things. The guys voice irritates me is all.
Anyway, thanks for the advice/assistance. I think the game is innovative in as much as it is the only cycling game around for the PC (maybe any platform)
but think it could be much better. There needs to be more cycling managers out there, that would push Cyanide to make genuine improvements to the game play rather than just improve it graphically.
Here is my method for lead-outs on PCM16 (using Dimension Data as my example):
Lead-out at Dubai Tour as Eisel, Cummings, Boasson Hagen, Renshaw and Cavendish.
30km to go - Select all riders to be used in the sprint and position them towards to first 30 positions of the main peleton.
18km to go - set the riders to follow each other in the reverse order above (Cav to follow Renshaw, Renshaw to follow EBH etc.) Once all are in position, set Eisel to Dot and 75 effort to move him more towards the front
10km to go - Set Cummings to Dot Effort (changing Eisel to maintain position and very briefly to zero effort to move him back through the peleton and not mess up the lead-out train). Adjust the effort of Cummings to make sure the lead-out is always at the front and setting the tempo (around 85 works for me most of the time)
5km to go - Do the same as above, but have EBH take over from Cummings, and at a higher effort (90+)
3km to go - Repeat above, but Renshaw takes over from EBH, keeping the same effort.
Within 3km - This varies on the type of finish, energy remaining for the riders and what other teams have done in their lead-outs, but I normally aim for starting sprint with Renshaw at 1.6-1.8km to go and then Cav going at 1km to go. However, you might need to start the sprint earlier or later if the situation requires it.
To stop the finish line suddenly appearing on you, I pause and restart the game whenever I am doing anything to the lead out (e.g. setting it up, having riders peel off etc.). You are always best keeping an eye on the distance left at the bottom of the screen (like matt mentioned and Tamijo has pointed you towards) instead of waiting for the commentary to tell you because it is more reliable. I play with no sound, use the events tab and the text that flashes up for updates on the race situations, and use the distance countdown to work out everything else.
As I said above, remember to set the peeling off rider to zero effort temporary (until your train has gone past) to avoid them blocking your riders. Once the train is past, change the effort back to 60-70 so they ride to the finish. Leaving them on 0 effort will have them abandon the race.
You're right, not having the game in front of me confused me
Both using the dot and the relay - or even infinite relay - works as options, but I prefer using relay because dot is too susceptible to changes of pace and if you set a too high effort you might spend too many unneeded energies.
Thanks to all for your response. I shall attempt to put your advice into action during the next day or two. Hopefully things may improve to the point where I can get a top 10 finish.
